Princess Tofu

The grape harvest is an exciting time of year in northern California so I am once again revisiting Tuscany for another culinary inspiration. I found this dish, grape focaccia, while perusing Nigel Slater’s new book, Ripe, which horrified me from the first few pages: pheasant with apples, blood sausage with apples, guinea fowl with sausage and apple… let’s just say that it took a few chapters before I was convinced Nigel was capable of writing recipes for the vegetarian in me. Don’t get me wrong, I think meat tastes great, but I don’t eat it so after 310 pages, I was glad to have found this focaccia recipe, and it’s a great one.

The best part about this classic harvest bread is that it can be subtly adjusted for a more savory flavor. Here, Nigel uses sugar to make a sweet caramelized grape crust, but I have also seen grape focaccia with rosemary and fennel toppings. I’m sure they are all amazing.

My first focaccia attempt earlier this summer was a recipe from a lovely book, which I have otherwise found many treasures… but a whole grain focaccia as a basal effort? I should know better than to start running before I learn to crawl. Working focaccia dough is like quicksand, the more you struggle, the more you sink. This was a hard lesson for me after some sticky, disastrous attempts until I tried the stretch and fold method for kneading bread. Don’t get me wrong, I love kneading bread and all of its glorious exercises but sometimes, it’s worth abandoning for the sake of sanity.

Schiacciata con l’uva (grape focaccia) inspired by Nigel Slater’s Recipe

Dough:

3 1/4 c. white bread flour

1 package of yeast ~2 ts.

1 ts. sea salt

1 tB sugar

1 1/2 c. warm water

Topping:

14 oz black seedless grapes

2 TB olive oil

2 TB raw sugar

confectioner’s sugar for dusting

+ Mix yeast and sugar in warm water (115°F) and allow to sit for five minutes until it begins to bubble a bit. In a large bowl, mix salt and flour together and stir in  yeast water once yeast is finished activating.

+ Once the dough has been mixed in very well, allow to sit for five minutes and dump the dough onto a floured surface and stretch dough out using this method: The stretch and fold technique from Peter Reinhart. 

+ Allow folded dough to sit for 45 minutes and repeat stretch and fold. Allow to sit another 45 minutes, but on the last dough stretch, fold in half of the grapes and allow dough to rise until doubled in size.

+ Preheat oven to 425°F. Top dough with olive oil, the remaining grapes, and place into the oven to bake for about 35 minutes. Once finished, dust the top of the focaccia with powdered sugar. Serve with butter.

Being small is a terribly challenging predicament in the kitchen, if not for the pleasure of miniature fruits.

This delightful dish has a lot of serendipity and a little bit of whimsy. During one of those fortuitous trips to Whole Foods I passed by a stack of champagne grapes whose petite clusters roused my childish desires. Unbeknownst to me, I could not resist the little darlings, but I needed a little vegetarian inspiration to provoke some culinary action. With very little Google work, I landed on this particular “salad” of sautéed grapes and scallops which I made into a vegetarian side with a king oyster mushroom substitution. I’ve always thought they shared a peculiar similarity in appearance and texture (not quite precise, but uncanny nonetheless). I also added soy sauce to maintain umami and used sherry vinegar in place of lemon juice. The texture is most gratifying when the little bubbles of sweetness explode into a simple and savory coating of soy and sherry.

Inspired by this recipe @bonappetit.com

1 c. sliced king oyster mushrooms (also called king trumpet mushrooms) – or 16 1/2″ slices.

3 TB butter

1 c. champagne grapes

1 TB minced shallots

2 TB olive oil

2 TB soy sauce

2 ts sherry vinegar

1/3 c. toasted sliced almonds

+ Sauté shallots and grapes in olive oil, sherry, and soy for two minutes. Add parsley and toasted almonds. Lower the temperature to keep warm while you cook mushrooms.

+ Melt butter in an iron skillet and sear each side of the mushrooms until brown. You might have to use a lid to partially steam the first side.

+ Serve mushrooms over warm cooked grapes.